Strong Basement Foundations

A basement can be a big asset to a home, or a big headache. If properly installed and maintained, it can be a great storage facility or converted into additional living space. If you, like many homeowners, are continually fighting with water and moisture issues, then you are probably hating the fact that you even have a basement. It is in your best interest both for quality of life and resale value to make your basement as much of an asset as possible.

The basement is essentially the foundation to your home, and a solid foundation is quite important. The original contractor should have taken the proper measures to ensure a strong foundation; but that isn’t always the case, especially in older homes.

A basement foundation should be even stronger and more enforced than a regular slab. Your contractor should be well-educated on the required codes in your area, but here is a simple overview of the requirements for a basement foundation. Begin with a concrete footing. On the exterior of the footing, you should install some form of a drain system to keep water away from the foundation. Forms will be built on top of the footing to form the concrete foundation walls; whose height will depend upon the engineering specifications for the project. On the inside of the concrete walls, a layer of gravel, followed by sand, followed by a steel-rebar grid, followed by a thick concrete slab will form the floor of the basement. You can then seal the concrete with a vapor-barrier sealant to prevent moisture from seeping through the concrete.

Once you have a strong foundation in place, you can convert your basement into anything you can imagine. As long as the proper drainage techniques and moisture barriers are in place, you shouldn’t have any of the problems typically associated with basements. Request free estimates from prescreened remodeling contractors to ensure your work is completed correctly.